The invention relates generally to test fixtures for material response to blast waves exposure. In particular, the invention relates to a gas gun barrel attachment to mount a target sample and provide instrumentation for blast measurements.
Traditional methods of measuring blast wave propagation through materials have involved the use of small explosive charges or a gas gun equipped with a Mylar or other burst diaphragm to generate the blast wave and complex target geometries such as instrumented mannequin heads wearing helmets coated with different test materials. There are three key disadvantages to these techniques:
1) explosive charges pose safety and environmental hazards,
2) the repeatability of Mylar burst diaphragms is poor at low pressures (below 100 psi), and
3) complex target geometries introduce uncertainties in the data due to irregular flow of the blast wave around targets and into the interfaces between the helmets and the instrumented mannequin heads.